Disclaimer: Most characters in this fiction belong to the great master Kouta Hirano, except Duke, who was invented only for this fiction. This story is posted for free and there is no more benefit from it than reading the awesome reviews and getting loving faves ;)

(Re) Building an Empire

Third Day -Sunrise-

Several hours in a Round Table meeting, if that could be called a meeting at all with only Rob Walsh and her there, left Integra's discomfort on its highest. It was always about money, the fool didn't understand that rescuing mission and reception of international aid was exceptionally important, but it was nothing compared to the remaining ghouls' dispatch.

Seras has been working nonstop, she has proved to be a faithful fighter, but her recently awaken abilities were far from her Master's, and much to her dismay she had also her limits, she couldn't kill the creatures bare handed. Tonight she had gone to eradicate ghouls in Barnet, not far from Sir Irons' mansion, where they were staying, but considering the monsters are moving it was most likely they had already repopulated yesterday's mission in Brent; also she only had some ammunitions for her harkonnen remaining and her only reinforcements were the living members of the Wild Geese. It was frustrating the lack of support. London was no near its restoration if the few surviving ghouls had multiplied in hundreds in a matter of hours, and the remnants of the city were plagued with mindless monsters that no one was taking care of.

The trip back to the manor driving the limo by herself was miserable. Her lost eye still ached and the vision of London turned to shreds made her feel impotent. Buildings reduced to scrap and random people wandering in some deserted street with the glint of hope that their relatives were still alive. It was almost dawn, some yellow tint igniting the horizon.

At least the mansion was housing the most injured people it could. The noise of kids playing oblivious of the horrors around them greeted her, some people sat up from their stretchers to give her a good morning. The doctors were pleased to see her. A young man in white lab coat informed her that the most needed medical supplies had arrived half an hour ago. At least a good new today.

Then an older doctor approached with a bewildered expression to inform there was someone waiting for her in the office.

"He arrived with the team in charge of bringing the medicine. He asked for a relative of his called Dracula." Integra's eye opened wide. Anyone using real Alucard's name was possible a threat. "But we haven't recorded yet all patients, and the house is over capacity. I didn't have the gut to send him back home at this hour, so I let him wait for talking to you."

Integra's mind turned a race between bad feelings and anger. The doctor had probably let inside a threat, and the least she needed was to deal with another intrusion like the Valentine brother's from some months ago. She rushed past the doctor to her makeshift office, the library, feeling the cold touch of her gun tucked under her arm, concealed by the jacket.

She opened the door with a kick and rolled on the floor, expecting to enter a room in complete darkness to meet with perhaps a vampire. Instead when she crouched with one knee on the floor, hand hold still halfway to the holster, a scared yelp stopped her from shooting. The unexpected visitor was in the complete opposite way of the scale of what she was expecting. Instead of the threatening vampire there was a tiny framed lean man sitting on the farthest place of the wide wooden table in the center of the room, shoulder taken aback by the surprise, his red bulging eyes fixed on her.

"Woa there! I a-a-am unarmed" saying this was an understatement as the man flashed a wide sharp toothed grin. He raised both arms leaving the hands by each side of his face.

"Who are you? Identify yourself" Integra had never been taken aback by a vampire; this strange visitor wouldn't be the exception. She took out the gun to point it at him. The man gasped.

"My...my n-name is Du-du-duke...please don't shot," the guy was trembling, for being a nosferatu he was pretty pathetic.

"Complete name."

"Du-duke Mi-mi-milford!" he closed his eyes shut turning his face to one side, expecting that saying his name deserved being shot.

"Duke? What a nosferatu might want in this place that is currently under Hellsing's protection?" she knew vampires were creatures with the power to allure, to decrease their victim's defense by using their charms. Honestly she was missing something because this little, wrinkled, pale man was everything but charming.

He looked away, annoyed of giving explanations to a simple human. She was far used to that face from when Alucard didn't consider her grown up enough for understanding some topics.

"I came to talk with Dracula."

How much has it been since Alucard changed his name? Certainly since Van Helsing was alive; if she was facing all alone an ancient vampire, this was a very dangerous situation.

"Who sent you, vampire?"

"No one" he shrugged, matter of factly.

"You lie."

"Seriously, why do you think that?" he turned the head around, if not for having the hands up, he'd motion with them too.

There was no time to let her curiosity let slip her mind, she already knew the name. This would permit her to get more useful information later, but by the moment it was plain stupid to stay in the same room with the vampire. The vampire tried to stand up.

BANG!

The bullet hit directly to the heart. The air rested still. His face crumpling with pain as seconds passed by, he crouched grabbing with his left hand the bullet hole. A hiss from the beast along with his angered red eyes froze Integra, a reminder that the unthreatening person was actually a monster. Whom instead of turning dust by the blessed silver bullet, started... panting? A metallic cling announced that the creature had expelled the pellet. Then he did the unexpected, he sobbed. To the Head of Hellsing's disarray, heavy drops of bloody tears were falling on the monster's cheeks.

"It hurts" he whined between hard closed teeth. "Why did you do that?"

Honestly Integra was more surprised that the man before her was not turning to dust. It was early in the morning, the moment he should be the weakest, and yet it had survived a silver BLESSED bullet. She just hoped the vampire wasn't angered enough to try to attack her, the five remaining bullets in her barrel might simply help her to escape but that would mean obliging to defended the house filled with injured people from a raged vampire. She glanced at the walls covered with bookshelves, damning her new office, for in the original she always had a handful of hidden weapons around. This was getting her nervous; maybe it was the time to start dialogue?

"I don't trust you, vampire, but I want to hear your reasons."

"And you have to say that after shooting me?" the vampire looked at his now stained and leaky pink sweater. The pain seemed to have gone. "I'm telling you the truth; I came here to talk with Dracula."

"Go in detail about it." She ordered.

The vampire relaxed as she stood up, but immediately flinched when the gun pointed at him again. He looked uncomfortably to one side to the other on the floor, hesitating to talk; a click in the gun reminded him he was in no position to negotiate.

"I'm American, I was in my home country watching the news and heard about some attacks in London, and then I had this..." his almost visible eyebrows got closer in the vampire's face as he tried to find a fitting word "...feeling that something wrong was happening." His red eyes met hers, expecting that was a convincing explanation, which wasn't. He had to continue. "I was worried. I knew Dracula was living in England from a century ago, but I never got the desire to pay him a visit. You know these things happen, one doesn't find time in the agenda and when you finally have you don't have the energy to travel and so" he mused with the hands forgetting his position.

Integra raised an eyebrow. From her knowledge of vampire's behavior, they were lonely, territorial creatures. If two vampires meet in the same area they'd most likely try to kill each other. Therefore it was impossible to this vampire to get anyway near Alucard without the throat ripped open. If his idea was to establish a new territory in London, this vampire had made the dumbest choice in the world by coming directly to Alucard's house while he was absent.

She had never heard of something like this, but maybe it was a retarded nosferatu.

"Why Dracula, from all things?" She was not underestimating the intruder, any false movement and he'd have the brains blown out.

The vampire looked at his legs on the chair, then up to Integra, and pouted.

"You see...Dracula is...is my..." he lowered the head for finishing the phrase in a mumble.

"SPEAK MONSTER!"

"Is my sire!" he closed the eyes shut. "Well...was my sire".

Again the ramblings in her head. Back in the times when she was a kid and had recently inherited the Hellsing household, she used to impose her newly acquired vampire a never ending amount of questions; from which kind of blood he preferred to some details about his past. At first, considering her a trustworthy Master, Alucard answered them all. However there were some nasty bits in his history that didn't meant to be shared. She presumed the nosferatu in front of her was part of them all, even when she had assumed her vampire had all his fledglings already dead. The last three his brides, killed by Abraham Van Helsing. Then what she was facing was a fully fledged undead, no longer owned by Alucard. Even so, she had never asked his servant if there was a still existent link between him and his old fledglings. Assuming Seras is still young she had thought it was more a matter of time than to blood.

"I see." She continued to her desk in the back part of the library with the gun pointing to the unwanted visitor. "And you expect me to take your declaration seriously? Vampires only change virgins of the OPOSITE sex. How could you explain that?" Once she sat on her chair the vampire started to rock back and forth, clearly uneasy for being pointed by the back.

"Well that's…" he trailed off, looking for an answer anywhere far from the gun point "none of your business."

BANG!

Another bullet, nearly in the same spot. The vampire yelped and started wimping like an injured dog. As it seemed this particular vampire was powerful but still sane, yet it didn't pose as much treat as expected. The sun was already up, it was just a matter of minutes before Seras'd show up to bid her a 'good day', as the joke had turned into a habit. Integra wasn't the type that needed help; even so this situation was too dangerous to fix it by herself.

Her sorry body was breaking in fatigue. She had been shooting ghouls all night. No overstatement here, all the night! At the early morning hours her 'troops', reduced to Aiden, Jules and Morris, the only available boys from the Wild Geese after the attack to London, had ran out of ammo and she had to deal with the monsters with her bare hands. It was impressive how her newly awakened powers had reached that level. Of course her Master was far more powerful, therefore she was eager to discover in what she could turn with time. But not that morning, in that moment she only wanted to stretch out in her coffin to forget the city was a pile of debris populated by ghouls and probably hidden coward Nazi vampires that they were yet to find. She was covered in mud, debris and blood; somehow this made her feel proud.

Even with the windows carefully polarized, the morning sun was pitching on her face through the van's window was making her feel a headache, she growled unexpectedly.

"Is something wrong, Captain?" Morris was busy cleaning his rifle, he didn't want to give the impression he had been seeing the Draculina's actions.

"Oh shut up Morris, you know it's early in the morning and the captain needs to rest."

Jules threw a heavy blanket over the girl. Sometimes she wondered why they had turned that paternal side on her when they had already seen her aggressiveness in combat.

"It's nothing. I'm a little upset for our small progress tonight."

Concealed in the darkness Seras realized she was feeling better. The van's movement was somewhat relaxing and in a matter of minutes they'd be in the mansion, ready for the new day that was coming.

"Don't worry Captain, Sir Hellsing went tonight to a Round Table meeting, wasn't she? They'd probably give us more weapons and some men, things will go faster with that."

"Hum, yeah... that would be nice." Deep inside she didn't believe these words, it was more likely the round table to decide to leave the destruction of the ghouls aside. London was too broken for caring about some monsters wandering in evacuated areas.

With just one foot on the mansion's grounds Seras realized something. It was like an electric current along her spine, the same feeling she had had when Alucard arrived to London on the ship, but somewhat different. Was his Master back? She was pretty sure he was still somewhere but not exactly sure, maybe he was anywhere; those thoughts had rambled on her mind since the day he disappeared. Therefore there was this small hint he might be back in a different way and maybe it's what she was experiencing.

She rushed to Integra's office, feeling her heart pump faster with every step. The undeniable aroma of Alucard mixed in an odd way was turning stronger.

"Master!" her eyes gleaming with joy changed into confusion when focusing on the owner of the essence. A small vampire sitting on the farthest chair on the table, well trimmed white hair, and a pink sweater stained in red on the chest were the most remarkable characteristics on him.

Both stared each other for about one minute. Seras getting closer slowly for analyzing him better.

Appearance was the least important when talking about Alucard, and the aura was similar; however her mind rolled with the idea that the man before her wasn't him. There was no way this person could be Alucard. It didn't matter the similarities in the allure, this guy is not my master!

"Dracula?" the tender tone of the intruder took her off. "I'm not sure, is that you?"

"Officer Victoria" Integra brought her back to reality, actually she didn't notice her boss was in there, and pointing her gun at the intruder no less. "I had my doubts about the statements of this person, but by judging your reaction I may assume they are all true."

"Ah...eh?" Seras saw how Sir Hellsing put the gun back on her holster to stand up.

"Sorry, I keep forgetting your name." Integra addressed to the vampire while lighting a cigar.

The man seemed utterly offended.

"Duke Milford" the intruder muttered while taking out of his pocket a presentation card to hand it to Seras. She was so in shock that couldn't take the eyes out of the stranger for reading the card on her hands.

"Here you go. Seras, let me introduce you..." she paused, probably looking for the right words "...your brother."

Seras jaw dropped to the floor. As far a she remembered she was single daughter. Wait, does she mean with Master? Actually, I'm not HIS daughter. Maybe that's why she was looking for a word, but I don't think there is one.

"So to make a point...you are not Dracula?" the little man half smiled resting one elbow on the other hand.

"Ah? No!" the Draculina was still in shock.

"Pwef, what a relief. I thought Dracula had decided to change his appearance, yet your aura is different to his. Shall I assume you are his fledging?"

"Yes!... I mean...I was!" why was she answering this guy was out of her understanding. The man had this power over her; maybe because he was an older vampire, she could feel that.

"Then nice to meet you." his sharp toothed smile seemed sincere. He turned to Integra warily. "It seems Dracula is not available to talk with me?"

"That information is not for sharing with you." Integra made the guy flinch with only her words.

"Fine I'll go, in case Dracula returns would you give me a call to the number in my card? It doesn't matter if it's a collect call," he turned away then he added with sarcasm "and thank you for the bullet shot, my seamstress will love what you did with my Armani."

"I'm afraid we can't do that mister." Sir Integra pulled out some smoke.

"Well, the card has also my e-mail..." he added. Seras looked then at the card, she gasped. Duke Midford was the owner of the international supermarket chain 'Market Off' "ok whatever, I may come in here any other time" he waved goodbye dismissively while going out of the room.

"Seras pin him down" Integra's cold orders took her off. She caught it when the guy was halfway in the hallway. She jumped over him grabbing his right arm back. He struggled, but somehow this vampire was weakened, so she didn't have to press a lot. "Drag him back."

"Wait! Why!" the guy pleaded while being pulled by the feet, his pointy nails leaving a trace on the rug as Seras took him to the room again.

Author's Note: After finishing this chapter I realized it's HUGE. So, chopping it in edible bites was in order. There was a lot of hesitation about introducing Duke in the story —I mean, this was originaly the plan, but as the other chapters developed it looked kinda out. Anyway, this story is about Integra and Seras, it's only I think they forcibly need to meet more people involved in their lives. Some characters will stay by their side, some others won't.

I'm still accepting any request or idea. Whatever comes in your mind would help to develop a new idea of my own —though you will get credit ;)

Thanks for the faves, follows and reviews. Specially to Karly101 and Mr. Lupin d^o^b